"In all modern cultures, cleaning up merely involves moving “dirt” from one place to another. Five decades ago, cleaning up may have been easier. It would have meant restoring the predominantly organic and compostable discards in the waste stream to its rightful place – namely, the soil –... View full entry
The 10-to-1 vote by the National Capital Planning Commission represented a significant milestone for the tribute to the World War II general and 34th president, which has been stalled since 2011. The vote allows the Eisenhower Memorial Commission to take its new design to the Commission of Fine Arts, the other federal agency that must give a green light before construction can begin. — washingtonpost.com
Of course, the Aspen Art Museum is far more inviting than most edifices when it comes to climbing. The museum exterior is built from Prodema, a composite made of wood and paper pulp, bound by resin, and coated in a wood veneer. The long woven strips that encase the building are placed at regular intervals, creating a ladder-like structure that almost calls out to be scaled. — news.artnet.com
The farther up you look in the world of architecture, the fewer women you see. In this chart, we’ve rounded up some common and publicly available metrics behind this claim. Like thousands of aspiring architects, we’ll start at the bottom and work our way up—while also pausing on the way to consider what these measures mean. — Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
Lian Chikako Chang, ACSA's Director of Research + Information and prolific Archinect blogger, has created a series of infographics charting the progress of women's roles in architecture. The statistics are, at a glance, both depressing and hopeful: compared to overall representation in the... View full entry
Wanting to stretch one's fascia, the wood wanting to expand, and the people inside being very minute in comparison with the wood's needs. It's almost as if the house itself is turning and emptying out all the residue of the people, wanting just to be free, free of the people, free of... the spoilage is the word that I'm getting, I just want to keep pushing out further and further and further, and as I do my own body just feels much much more relaxed. — Asher Hartman
Aside from being an emblem of the Arts and Crafts movement and an historical landmark, it turns out the Gamble House in Pasadena, California is also haunted. Or, so it would seem according to performance artist Asher Hartman, who communed with former generations of Gambles in his "psychic reading"... View full entry
In a quiet, shady street in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, Koen Olthuis and the design team at Waterstudio are changing the world. From this deceptively nondescript headquarters, Waterstudio is designing the cities of the future. If Olthuis has his way, they will be safer, more flexible and more resilient than current cities. How will he do this? Olthuis is designing floating cities. — nextcity.org
Every night in Tokyo, the few remaining residents of the Nakagin Capsule Tower bed down to sleep in the once-futuristic white pods they call home.
Unlike the tiny, coffin-like cabins of Japan's numerous capsule hotels, where office workers who have missed the last train can catch a few hours' sleep, the 140 units at Nakagin represent a special part of the history of architecture, and one that is worth protecting against plans to tear it down, say campaigners.
— globalpost.com
"We're going to collect donations from all over the world. We're trying to buy each capsule one by one. Each room counts as one vote, to decide what to do," said Masato Abe, founder of the Save Nakagin Capsule Tower Project. View full entry
The dominant architectural site in [Mecca] is not the Sacred Mosque, where the Kaaba, the symbolic focus of Muslims everywhere, is. It is the obnoxious Makkah Royal Clock Tower hotel, which, at 1,972 feet, is among the world’s tallest buildings. It is part of a mammoth development of skyscrapers that includes luxury shopping malls and hotels [...] The city is now surrounded by the brutalism of rectangular steel and concrete structures — an amalgam of Disneyland and Las Vegas. — NY Times
The first job I had after graduating from architecture school was in the office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. And I worked under the head person, Gordon Bunshaft, who was terrific. And, after I was there for six months, I was offered a position in the office of Marcel Breuer. So, I went and told Mr. Bunshaft, “I'm sorry that I've only been here a short time…” but I wanted to work in Breuer's office because it was smaller and more of the kind of office I had one day hoped to have for myself. — Esquire Magazine
Upon the recent controversial demolition of the "5 POINTZ" graffiti mecca in Long Island City, NY, a group of architects consisting of Arianna Armelli, Ishaan Kumar, David Sepulveda and Wagdy Moussa came up with the idea of DEFACED. In the proposal, DEFACED is an organization that is dedicated to... View full entry
San Mateo County Court Judge Barbara Mallach has ruled against Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla in a lawsuit over public access to Martin’s Beach.
According to the ruling, Khosla will be required to seek a permit from the California Coastal Commission before locking gates at the beach, as well as to consult with the community to determine changes to the property and public access to the beach.
— Venture Beat
The secluded Martin's Beach in San Mateo County has been a cherished spot for locals for decades. When Khosla purchased his 53-acre property there in 2008, he locked the gate to the beach, closing off public access. This is just one example of a long history of wealthy property owners trying to... View full entry
In a move that could dramatically change Los Angeles’ skyline, city leaders announced Monday that helicopter landing facilities will no longer be required atop new buildings.
The fire code requirement has been criticized for contributing to the “flat-topped” look of Los Angeles’ skyline, particularly in downtown.
Los Angeles was the only major U.S. city with such a rule, which has been in place since at least the 1970s.
— dailynews.com
The Spofford Juvenile Center was a particularly painful landmark in the Hunts Point community in the Bronx when it was built in 1957... [Majora Carter] envisions the Spofford site combining mixed-income housing, open space and economic development that would appeal to the neighborhood’s existing demographics. Carter is a supporter of affordable housing, but thinks that if it’s built in isolation, you still haven’t solved the problems of employment and a lack of amenities. — nextcity.org
On August 22nd, 2014 Brian Mackay-Lyons hopped off his tractor and wiped the diesel fuel off his hands to discuss architectural education with Keith and Marie Zawistowski, co-founders of the design/buildLAB at Virginia Tech and partners of OnSite Architecture. — Inform
Brian MacKay-Lyons is the founding partner of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, a professor at Dalhousie University, and the founder of Ghost Lab – the now legendary 2-week summer design/build program that took place on his family farm in Nova Scotia from 1994 to 2011. While relentlessly... View full entry
CityLab's more than 400 attendees will bring together the people who are creating the cities of the future—dozens of mayors from around the world, practitioners, planners, architects, artists, economists, urban scholars, and other civic leaders—to discuss emerging trends and share best practices for common challenges. — AtlanticLIVE
Archinect will be covering the second annual "CityLab: Urban Solutions to Global Challenges" conference, a summit for top figures in city governments, design, architecture, journalism and technology to address pressing urban issues. Hosted by The Atlantic in partnership with The Aspen Institute... View full entry
